title: Investigation of reperfusion injury and ischemic preconditioning in microsurgery.
abstract: Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) is inevitable in many vascular and musculoskeletal traumas, diseases, free tissue transfers, and during time-consuming reconstructive surgeries in the extremities. Salvage of a prolonged ischemic extremity or flap still remains a challenge for the microvascular surgeon. One of the common complications after microsurgery is I/R-induced tissue death or I/R injury. Twenty years after the discovery, ischemic preconditioning has emerged as a powerful method for attenuating I/R injury in a variety of organs or tissues. However, its therapeutic expectations still need to be fulfilled. In this article, the author reviews some important experimental evidences of I/R injury and preconditioning-induced protection in the fields relevant to microsurgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Las Vegas, NV 89102, USA. wwang@medicine.nevada.edu
authors.forename: Wei Zhong
authors.initials: WZ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007511:Ischemia / Q000503:physiopathology; D019194:Ischemic Preconditioning; D008833:Microcirculation; D008866:Microsurgery / Q000379:methods*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D015424:Reperfusion / Q000379:methods; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016896:Treatment Outcome